Treading The Path of Redemption
by The Final Conduit
Summary: Shadow had done it. He had regained his memories. But it turned out to be worse than he would have ever expected. Faced with it, Shadow confronted the GUN Commander, intent on redemption. How, one would ask? Simple: "You've found yourself another soldier."
1. Prologue

The black hedgehog looked down upon the now fallen being lying at his feet, the being's ruby red eyes staring up at him with uncontained hatred, watching as the seven different colored gems circled around him.

"Shadow… this isn't over yet…" Black Doom grunted in his deep and ancient voice, barely supporting himself from falling face-first into the ground, "The Black Arms… will rise again…"

Shadow looked at alien, his expression devoid of emotion.

"I know," He said, his voice distant.

"You cannot defeat the Black Arms… they are your own…" Black Doom struggled to speak, his voice becoming rugged.

If he had a mouth, Shadow would never have a doubt in the world that he would be coughing up blood.

Shadow glanced at his hand, gloved in its white fabric, and his ears drooped sadly.

"Yes… they are my own… I was a science experiment gone horribly wrong. I should never have been created." He spoke out loud, his voice still distant.

The alligator nest to him, who wore golden chains and much larger gloves similar to the hedgehog's, looked to him immediately.

"You shouldn't say that! Look at what you've just done! After all of this, there's no way that it was a mistake!" Vector exclaimed, turning to him, "And if what we've studied is true, you could-"

What he was, Shadow would never know.

He was already walking away, leaving the alligator alone with the surely soon to be dead Black Doom.

Shadow walked quietly back to through the places he passed, the place seeming to stop falling apart.

It was probably because the emeralds were reacting to his emotions, causing he once quickly deteriorating Space Colony ARK to stop gradually.

As he walked, Shadow couldn't help but feel his mind cringe, his brain giving a powerful wave of pain whenever he passed areas that were too much of a memory of _those_ days.

The days before he caused those sins.

He remembered many things, mostly a happy life and times where he trained to become stronger for an unknown reason.

He was genuinely sorry for all the things he did, as the people involved were innocent.

But he was struggling with the fact that he remembered hearing a voice, tempting him… controlling him…

He knew he needed to pay for his sins, and he knew just what to do.

He appeared before the tall and lanky general, his eyes mismatched in color.

Shadow's blood red eyes were filled with nothing as he stared at the Commander of G.U.N.

He remembered him.

This guy was Abraham, a guy who had never really liked Shadow at all. He had been mischievous before, but now he was…

"Do you remember now?" He spoke coldly.

Shadow gave no response, only nodded shortly.

"I know what I have to do now." He looked right up into his mismatched eyes, the emeralds circling around him faster, "Now I only need a few minutes time…"

"You've already had your fill of time," The Commander cut him off.

"You know that I can't just die like this. I need to redeem myself, don't I? Would you really think that's what she would've wanted? Do you think Maria would have wanted you to kill me without even letting me have a chance for my own redemption?"

A low blow, yes, but Shadow didn't care.

He had an obligation, and he wouldn't let anyone get in his way.

He would go to any terms, peaceful or violent as they might have been.

"If you want me to help you in this fight, then I'll gladly will. But first, we need to deal with this Comet." Shadow glanced over at the comet in statement, seeing it burning as it flew through space.

The Commander followed his gaze, and he saw the same thing.

"My men are already aboard. They have no need for-"

"Tell your men to retreat. If they do not within the next 3 minutes, I'll destroy all who are in there." Shadow walked away without waiting for a response.

"Why should I take orders from you demon?"

Shadow only looked his way and smirked, "Because you've found yourself a new soldier."

He walked away again without waiting for a response again, anxious to end this invasion, walking right for his destination – The Eclipse Cannon.


	2. Unexpected Tests

Shadow walked through the halls, his feet creating a rhythmic metallic tapping as he went.

He walked with indifferent steps as he passed several soldiers, many without their masks and their expressions showing clearly.

Very many showed no emotion, though Shadow knew they knew as well as he did that if he wanted them dead, they would probably be on the floor before they could even consider saying a final prayer.

The ones who did actually show any emotion were few in number.

And even then, they only showed mild surprise.

Shadow secretly respected them for that.

At least the best forces humans had to offer as protection could at least seem powerful enough.

G.U.N. was a type of military unit, of which was very large, that was supplied to help any nations that were in need.

G.U.N's funding all pretty much came from the United Nations, every member chipping in to give it more power.

G.U.N never interfered directly with things such as Wars, famine and such.

The most common time they really interfered in things like War was when War grew on the scale of "World War" or something in the midst of that.

Other Times, they typically did favors for countries when their military couldn't handle it very well, Eggman being a perfect example of this.

And Shadow recalled how leaders in G.U.N often spoke of him as an "it" or a "thing" whenever they referred to him.

At the time, he never really knew why they called him that.

Now he understood, and though he really didn't like it, he knew why.

He was merely a weapon in their eyes.

And things hadn't changed in the slightest from what Shadow could see.

The Commander, Black Doom, and even Eggman always looked at him the same way whenever he did something that got in the way of their plans.

They just scowled in annoyance, if not anger, at him, as though he were a slave that didn't do what it was told right, or not as efficiently as they hoped.

He knew they wouldn't have given those looks to Sonic, even if he did the exact same thing that he, Shadow had done.

He was a person in their eyes, that simply was getting in their way.

But with Shadow it was different... so much different...

They always seemed to think the same thing: If it were only tamed a bit more...

If I could tempt him to help us more...

If he was on my side...

Shadow let himself mentally sigh.

Unfair as it was, Sonic being seen as a person, stupid and annoying as he was, and Shadow being seen as a weapon with a mind of its own was a thing he knew no amount of complaining or effort could ever change.

And he knew he fully deserved that treatment.

Who would blame the Commander for thinking he was a weapon that was out of control, when Shadow himself had slaughtered everyone they both cared about in the ARK?

Who could blame Black Doom for hoping to take advantage of him when he had already taken enough lives to put several mass murderers combined to shame?

Who would blame humanity for forever shunning him for bringing their planet, their home, on the very brink of utter destruction?

Shadow closed his eyes for a brief moment, holding back his sigh.

Yeah, he had brought it on himself.

And that's why he wanted to redeem himself before he died.

He stopped in front of a room, its sliding doors holding the G.U.N insignia.

Shadow stepped before it, and it slid open soundlessly as it revealed the room inside.

"Hello Shadow." The middle-aged man spoke from his chair, his gloved fingers intertwined tightly, his mismatched eyes narrowed critically, as if watching for even the slightest wrong movement.

"Hello Abraham." Shadow responded, expression now mocking instead of emotionless and blank. Just because he was aiming for redemption didn't mean he was supposed to treat anyone any differently as he had before. "You wanted to see me?"

The Commander's face twitched ever so slightly in anger at his real name, "That's Commander to you, and yes. I did."

"Why?" Shadow spoke with a blank tone.

"I wanted to disclose the contract that you made with G.U.N.," He lifted up a paper, all filled with words and signatures, all in Shadow's handwriting.

The contract was, to say it very bluntly, small.

At least word wise.

All it had was a relatively small paragraph:

'By signing this document, you agree that you will be leaving all relatives both closely and loosely related to you. You agree to be under 24 hour surveillance, if under reasonable suspicion for treason or any other crimes. You agree to constantly put yourself in harm's way if necessary to complete a mission. You agree for G.U.N. to use your bodily organs to donate to those who need it...'

The list went on for a little bit longer and ended soon ended, showing an "x" with a long blank line next to it.

"You simply have to sign this last form."

Shadow walked forward, picking up a pen from a mug Abraham had on his desk, and signed it without much thought.

As he finished signing, his handwriting rough, he looked back at the mismatched eyes.

"Now?"

"Now you take the tests."

As Shadow found out, the "tests" were quite numerous.

One was a physical exam, of which he excelled in greatly over everyone else.

Another was a medical exam, where the part takers would be tested on medical ability.

Shadow was on his way to one of them, but he stopped when he saw an actual corpse on the floor, claret blood surrounding it.

He literally just found the body as he walked to the room his next test while he was alone.

But there was no time to think then.

Shadow ran quickly at the person, flipping it over and checking for a pulse.

Finding only silence, he improvised as the place was secluded.

He pressed two palms over each other, then pressed down on the dummy' s chest, counting down his time from 60 seconds.

He had taken a CPR class during his time in the ARK.

But he inwardly cursed himself for not paying much attention then.

One thing he did remember though, was if you were untrained, you had to pump their heart 100 times in the time limit of one minute, then start the process again, until...

Until...

Shadow mentally cursed loudly at himself.

Why hadn't he remembered?!

He did the thing that he remembered, and kept doing this for a very long time.

He was probably much too late for his test, but Shadow didn't stop.

That was when he felt a hand grab his shoulder, pulling him off.

Turning at the hand quickly, he saw that it was a G.U.N. soldier, "It's alright. You passed."

Shadow looked at him like he was something he had never seen before, "There's a corpse on the floor, and you saying I passed in that casual-"

The man walked by him, crouching down and tearing off the person's skin near their mouth, tearing off their cheek.

Where Shadow expected to be blood, there was only a type of foam.

Soon, the realization dawned on the ebony hedgehog.

"That was..." Shadow spoke softly. But one woukd easily know what he meant.

It was a test.

* * *

Shadow could be found walking through the halls of the base several hours later, for physical check ups.

As he sat in a chair, a nurse pressed an object into his chest, so that she could hear his heartbeat, the cold metal sending a very minor chill up his body.

"Breathe in." The nurse commanded.

Shadow complied wordlessly, expression a mix between irritation and boredom.

"Breathe out."

He let out his breath quickly, hoping to end this as quickly as possible.

The nurse listened intently to the sudden change in his heartbeat for a long moment. Then she retracted her medical tools, folding them and giving Shadow a smile, though he could not see it, "Would you mind telling the next person that it's time for them next?"

Shadow hopped onto the ground, "Yeah."

His voice didn't sound that convincing.

He walked out, and she wasn't surprised when she saw that he left without even speaking to the next person.

She smiled.

This reminded her of a story her mother had told her while she worked for G.U.N.

She had did a medical checkup on a rather rebellious boy that did and acted the same way as Shadow in that moment.

He always came to the injury room to treat, although very needless to say, his injuries and wounds.

And several years later, the nurse herself was born.

And despite it being kept a secret, the nurse couldn't deny that her father was very important now - at least not genuinely.

But her father would kill her if she told anyone she was The Commander's daughter.

* * *

Shadow walked quietly past all the people there, arms crossed.

No one moved out of his way as he went, as most humans often did.

This felt somewhat strange to Shadow, and he felt both a wave of alleviation and a pang of pity for the soldiers.

Alleviation because this showed that they weren't afraid of him at all, even going as far as probably thinking they were his equals.

Pity because it meant that if he were ever to - hypothetically speaking of course - turn against this military unit, that equal feeling might get them killed.

And what use would a mound of dead soldiers be if help was needed?

He walked again into the Commander's office, seeing him looking over several papers, eyes almost even more critical than his gaze became when he saw Shadow.

He looked up quickly when Shadow walked in, and he saw the gaze intensify almost instantly.

It was _almost_ more critical.

"Why are you here Shadow?"

"I'm finished with the tests. What was the point of them anyways?"

"It was to see what you could do at a moment's notice. Some tests were sprung out like traps, just to see how you'd react. And you passed most of them."

"Then what should I do now?"

"You will be given a mission."

"And the mission is?"

"You have to help an agent of ours. She is currently trying to infiltrate Doctor Robotnik's base as we speak."

"Wouldn't the difference in power be too great?"

"What?"

"If I helped a soldier infiltrate a base, wouldn't my power get in the way of her, and her lack thereof would be the same for me?"

"Just take these coordinates and leave immediately."

Shadow barely looked at the chip thrown at him as he caught it, "You aren't even going to tell me who I'm working with, or what we'll be looking for?" He glared at the man before him, "And you call yourself the leader of the best guardian unit. How disappointing."

"She'll give you a briefing when you arrive," Abraham's clenched jaw made it obvious he was trying to contain his anger and irritation at the insult, "And don't worry about how compatible a partner she'll be. You already have experience with her I take it."

"What person who works for this organization actually has ever even made eye contact with me, let alone work with me?"

"So she hasn't told you..." Abraham's anger was gradually dissolving, turning into slight bemusement.

"Who hasn't told me what?"

"Your partner is Rouge the Bat. She became a G.U.N. agent very soon after we offered a position to her here. Shortly after you said you'd become an agent."

Shadow stared for a long time.

The seriousness in Abraham's eyes told him he wasn't joking.


End file.
